Monday 28 May 2012

Bad sister, bad friend!

Unfortunately, I have been a bad sister AND a bad friend!

Bad friend because I had to miss my bestie Shannon's baby shower... so "gutted" (as they say here, which I quite like)!!!

Bad sister because I have been neglecting to read my sister's blog regularly. Today, however, I FINALLY revisited it - and she and her boyfriend have chosen a new Wordpress theme and it looks great!

Look! It's me!
JUST KIDDING. That's my sister! She likes food, too!

So, to try and make up for the bad sister bit (the bad friend bit, I've remedied by dropping something into the mail...), please check out her blog here!

She and her boyfriend both up and quit their jobs (well, she finished her master's: she's smart like that) in January and are spending the next 10 months travelling through Africa. Insane—and way braver than I will (probably) ever be.


Thursday 24 May 2012

Soho Yum Yum: London's first "Temakeria"

So apparently, Yoobi is London's first "temakeria". I happily chanced upon this little corner restaurant (38 Lexington St. in Soho) on my way to work in a café—and it reminded me of Michi Sushi in Vancouver, a cute little "sushi on the go" restaurant right at the corner of Granville and Broadway.

Someone told me (I think it might have been one of the guys working in the restaurant!) that temakerias originate in Brazil... but, er, somehow I doubt that (Japan, no?!). To this person's credit, however, if you google "temaki", there are a surprising number of hits from Brazil.

Cute branding.

Brand new interiors—clean and spacious, if a bit sparse.

They do actually sell other things as well—miso soup (£2), for example. I quite liked this version, which, in addition to miso, tofu, and bits of seaweed, also had broccoli! I went there quite early in the lunch hour so I imagine the broccoli would get soggy by afternoon, but maybe not.

Temaki! This is making me hungry just looking at it. 

Citrus Salmon temaki: £3.60

 Tuna tartare temaki: £4

See you there soon!

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Adventures in London: lost and found

Mind the Gap!

Seven months into living in London and I already barely hear the "Mind the Gap" announcements and am basically immune to the horrible squeal between Paddington and Edgware Road stations.

But never mind: the tube isn't so bad, otherwise. And check out what we chanced upon!

(Ok, so this was actually two months ago, but I only remembered my plan to post this after I lost my good ol' Telus BlackBerry and discovered that these photos had somehow made it into my iPhoto anyway.)


The official Transport for London Lost Property Office! 

That wasn't the cool part, though. In the windows were shelves of stuff that had been found, labelled with the year they were found and which station / bus. It was a true mishmash of stuff from different decades... 

Check out the mobile phone from 1993. I'm pretty sure my dad had a similar one—perhaps an even bigger one! Apparently, someone also lost an IRON on the tube, back in 1934. 

A top hat found at Euston station in 1951!

Here: a telephone lost at Camden station in 1936, and an amazing vintage Mamiya camera lost in Brixton in 1979. Immediately after seeing the camera, I noticed the "things in this window are not for sale" sign. Damn. 

I have yet to lose anything on the tube in London (Elliot did lose a pair of gloves I gave him for Christmas a few years ago, though)—and I doubt much actually gets turned in these days... but what an interesting place nonetheless!

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Wish List Wednesday: Texture!

I've been really into the TEXTURE of my clothes lately - I'm not 100% sure why, but I think it has something to do with getting tired of all the high-street, crappy polyester clothes out there. In fact, I've basically stopped going to H&M and Topshop: as much as I appreciate fast fashion, I've completely gone off of it... not such a good thing for my bank account, although it does mean I'm buying fewer items in general.

Anyway, I think feeling so many crappy fabrics in these types of stores gave me a craving for interesting, more "authentic"-feeling materials.

The results:

A loopy skirt by Rag & Bone from The Outnet that I've been loving ever since I tried on the matching jacket over a year ago. Here's a photo of me at an event in Vancouver's Holt Renfrew wearing it. 


A teensy back story: I had interviewed the designers earlier that day and have never blushed so much in an interview. It all started when I said my boyfriend was British and co-designer David Neville said, "Oh, you like British boys, do you?" with his little twinkly eyes, to which I replied, "Yes, but I've also met your wife!" (His wife is makeup artist Gucci Westman, and I met her years ago, backstage at New York Fashion Week). Such "cheeky chappies", as they say here.

Another photo from the event. Us three girls are all trying on Rag & Bone dresses; I ended up buying that red/maroon one. Our retro-school-picture pose was Joy's idea :)

More texture: this time via Zara (the one high street store I still do love). This beaded and embroidered clutch was the last one - and I kept such a firm clutch (sorry, couldn't resist) on it that the changing room attendant let me bring it into my room while I tried on a skirt (they never allow accessories in there). Woo!

And my last bit of texture - so I'm pretty sure these ARE polyester, but how amazing are they?! I got these Isabel Marant beauties at the Shop at Bluebird, a gorgeous boutique in Chelsea that has an amazing buy. These are also available in black (though what's the point, when you have black hair). 

Love!

Tuesday 8 May 2012

Weekend in Mallorca

Monday, May 7 was a "bank holiday" here in the UK (stat. holiday in Canada - yet another little language-ism I feel the need to share) - May Day, officially. I went to visit Elliot in Spain, which was more eventful than normal.

On Friday night, we went to Pirates (Reloaded) with some of the Mallorca Rocks reps and guests - it's a dinner show with a sexed-up version for adults that features, obviously, a pirate theme and acrobatics-type numbers. It's one of the main attractions in Magaluf, which has a lovely beach but is far more known as a playground for 16-20-year-old British lads on their first vacation away from their parents (for you North Americans, think a bunch of teenagers on their first trip to Cancun or Vegas and you get the idea.)

Then, on Saturday night, we went to a launch party for McQueen Ibiza, which has just opened a new location in Mallorca. I was told this was a party to celebrate "adult toys", which was no, NOT sex toys but stuff like this:


That, my friends, is a jet pack. It's this weird, Ironman-like contraption that basically has two hoses near your armpits that shoot out water that has been sucked up through a hose hanging out of a 'base' that you wear on your back. Sounds weird... and it looks weird, too. 

That's not all: it retails for €100,000. If I have that kind of money, a jet pack is NOT the first thing I would be lining up to buy....

We got a better look the next day (actually, Elliot was going to try it out but after three hours and a few "incidents"—a loose screw here, a missing Allen key there, and plenty of "we'll be ready in half an hour"s—we gave up).
Weird.

This, however, was my view — so no complaining.

We also went to one of my favourite paella restaurants at Camp de Mar on the west side of the island - didn't have the saffron-y dish this time, but did start with another Spanish favourite, pimientos de Padrón. Legend has it that 1/100 of these little peppers will be spicy, but I have never, EVER had a spicy one. 

But watch: now they'll always be spicy.


In Palma, there was also a little festival / market this weekend - I think it might have been for the Feria de Abril, but I'm not sure.



My favourite little stall was a "Pulperia", which was selling Pulpo a la Gallega, a signature Spanish dish. SO fresh and so delicious. I want some now!




Look at those tentacles!